July 2, 2019

Procurement Services recently revised the Purchasing Policy and created new Purchasing Guidelines based on feedback received from the University community. Below is a summary of the changes, effective July 1.

Summary of the Changes to the Purchasing Policy

• Added or enhanced language reflecting Drexel University's commitment to diversity and sustainability, including consideration of these factors in making purchasing determinations.
• Clarified appropriate use of confirming orders and check requests (provided specific examples, including defining acceptable parameters for honoraria).
• Defined exceptions to competitive bidding requirements, including a non-exhaustive list of valid sole source criteria.
• Incorporated Drexel University Online, use of consortium/cooperative agreements, and unique research-related procurement considerations.

Please note that competitive bidding thresholds remain unchanged. This decision was made following a review of the policies of peer institutions and statistical analysis of Drexel's requisition activity; 91 percent of analyzed purchases fell under the $5,000 competitive quote threshold, and 97.6 percent of analyzed purchases fell under the $25,000 formal RFP threshold.

The Purchasing Policy can be viewed on the Procurement Services website.

Summary of the New Purchasing Guidelines

Guidelines to support the Purchasing Policy were separated from the Purchasing Policy with the intent for the Policy to focus on the substantive rules of purchasing goods and services and for the Guidelines to focus on process, procedures and best practice.

More specifically, the Guidelines contain information regarding the Drexel's Request for Proposal (RFP) process, applicability of Drexel's standard terms and contract templates as it relates to the purchasing process, defined procedures for "Special Purchases" such as alcohol, hazardous materials, computers, etc., and defined use of and considerations related to punchout and hosted catalogs available in Smart Source.

The Purchasing Policy Guidelines can be viewed on the Procurement Services website.